Mainstream Women’s Healthcare does not typically provide natural, holistic, pro-woman, or pro-family care. The protocols and procedures commonly prescribed are often at odds with what is best for women’s health. Many protocols, in fact, harm women’s health in favor of having women fill a societal expectation of our roles, rather than helping us maintain a healthy body.

An example of this includes the routine prescribing of artificial contraceptives that shut down a woman’s healthy functioning. Rather than helping women understand their fertility and teaching them Fertility Awareness Based Methods to help her plan her family size in a way that has no health risks, the Medical Industry chooses to assert that the benefits of oral contraceptives outweigh their risks, and this despite the fact that the World Health Organization classified oral contraceptives as a Group One Carcinogen for breast, liver, and cervical cancer. This risk is highest for women who use the pill for four or more years prior to their first, full-term pregnancy. Although breast cancer used to be seen rarely, and then in post-menopausal women who had never born children, breast cancer is the most common cancer death for women of childbearing age today. Despite this evidence, young teens whose bodies are still growing and maturing are routinely given such drugs, often for conditions like acne that can be treated with much less danger to her than pills that alter her systemic functioning. Where holistic or life-affirming care is available, it is often hard to find and serves only a small segment of the population.

Other examples of the health of women being of less priority than other concerns can be seen in the birth practices that many health centers employ such as the routine augmentation of labor, having laboring women push while on their backs, and the overuse of cesareans. It can be seen in the overreaching marketing and promotion of artificial feeding methods for babies despite known health risks and where there is no medical need to do so.

Women who find themselves facing a crisis pregnancy often feel left alone and without resources, making them feel that abortion is their only feasible option. Resources that they need are often unknown to her and can be difficult to find and time-consuming to access. Multiple services are rarely located in a single location.

We feel that gender equality shouldn’t come at the price of our health. True healthcare for women should recognize the greatness and the gift of femininity and help us to function at our healthiest. When women are affirmed in their femininity and are honored for who they are, then we will be empowered and have true equality.